The Telling Error: Culver Valley Crime Book 9

Queen of psychological crime Sophie Hannah returns with a new literary mystery that's impossible to solve...

Stuck in a traffic jam on her way to deliver her son's forgotten sports kit to school, Nicki Clements sees a face she hoped never to see again. It's definitely him, the same police officer. He's stopping all the cars on Elmhirst Road one by one, talking to every driver. Keen to avoid him, Nicki does a U-turn and takes a long and inconvenient detour, praying he won't notice her panicked escape.

He doesn't, but a CCTV camera does, as Nicki soon finds out when detectives pull her in for questioning the next day in connection with the murder of Damon Blundy, controversial newspaper columnist and resident of Elmhirst Road.

Nicki can't answer any of the baffling questions detectives fire at her. She has no idea why a killer might sharpen nine knives at the murder scene, then use two blunt ones to kill, in a way that involves no stabbing or spilling of blood. She doesn't know what 'HE IS NO LESS DEAD' means, or why the murderer painted it on the wall of Blundy's study. And she can't explain her desire to avoid Elmhirst Road on the day in question without revealing the secret that could ruin her life.

Because, although Nicki is not guilty of murder, she is far from innocent...

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer. Her crime novels have been translated into 34 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. In 2014 and 2016, Sophie published The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket, the first new Hercule Poirot mysteries since Agatha Christie's death, both of which were national and international bestsellers. Sophie's novels The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level throughout the UK. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, two children and dog.